Brief History of Iran-Iraq War

The 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War was the longest conventional warfare of the 20th century, in which trench warfare was used for the first time since World War I, and in which Iraq dropped numerous nerve and chemical bombs on Iranian military and civilian populations.

With more than a million casualties in the war from both sides, it was also one of the bloodiest wars of the last century. The cost of conducting the war, and the direct and indirect damage caused by it, is put at $1.190 billion (Hiro 1990).

Iraq envisioned that its invasion of Iran in September 1980 would lead to a swift victory, given the recent revolution in Iran and the large-scale desertions from the army following the revolution, which were estimated at 60 percent. Iraq quickly occupied the port city of Khorramshahr in September 1980. Despite its weakened army and untrained forces, the Iranian forces were able to fight off Iraq’s attempt to take the city of Abadan, where the largest oil refinery of Middle East at the time was housed. It took two years for Iran to free the city of Khorramshahr (1982), at which point the Islamic Republic decided to turn on the offensive and attack Iraqi territory.

The war continued for another six years, and when both sides finally signed the ceasefire, no territorial changes had taken place during the war.